Poll: NC Republicans Shift Thinking on Climate Change After Florence

Opinions regarding climate change in North Carolina have shifted among Republicans following Hurricane Florence, with 37 percent now saying global warming is “very likely” to impact the state’s coastal communities in the next 50 years, compared to 13 percent who felt that way in 2017, according to an Elon University survey taken in early October.

Florence caused nearly $13 billion in damage, per state officials, and many of the people who were hit by the storm were also hit by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Forty people died as a result of Florence, and more than 30 inches of rain from the storm fell in some parts of the state, which, along with the storm surge caused widespread flooding that damaged thousands of homes and other buildings.

The survey comes four days after President Donald Trump expressed doubt over a warning issued by a Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that global warming would increase climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, economic growth and human security.

"You'd have to show me the scientists because they have a very big political agenda,” Trump said during an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Jason Husser, a political-science professor who directs the Elon poll, told The Washington Post the survey shows “there’s a very large minority within the Republican Party who are at least open to the first steps to accepting that climate change is a possibility.”

Opinions regarding climate change in North Carolina have shifted among Republicans following Hurricane Florence, with 37 percent now saying global warming is "very likely" to impact the state's coastal communities in the next 50 years, compared to 13 percent who felt that...